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SCOPE

SCOPE is the interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed social sciences journal publication of the Urban Equity Institute. Submissions are always open and accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year, with the average response time to a submitted piece being 2-3 weeks depending on the length. We accept a variety of different pieces in three main topics with recommended subfields:

  1. Politics, Government, and Economics
    1. Immigration Policy (i.e. sanctuary laws, asylum, social infrastructure, etc.)
    2. Foreign Affairs (i.e. international affairs, diplomacy, security studies, etc.)
    3. American Governance (i.e. Congressional Reform, Senate, lobbying, etc.)
    4. Legal Studies (i.e. judicial affairs, the Supreme Court, etc.)
    5. Economics (i.e. political economy, international economy, trade, etc.)
  2. History
    1. Intellectual History (i.e. history of ideas, theories of knowledge, etc.)
    2. Political History (i.e. global conflict, diplomatic history, etc.)
    3. Modern History (i.e. contemporary histories, oral histories, etc.)
    4. Sociocultural History (i.e. migration, translation studies, etc.)
  3. Urban Affairs
    1. Housing (i.e. gentrification, affordable housing, public housing, etc.)
    2. Ethnography (i.e. cultural studies, visual ethnography, behavioral analysis, etc.)
    3. Geography (i.e. GIS methods, mapping, ecology, etc.)
    4. Social Justice (i.e. incarceration, racial justice, protest, activism, etc.)
    5. Architecture (i.e. design, criticism, research, drafting, etc.)
  4. Sociology, Anthropology, and the Critical Humanities
    1. Religious studies (i.e. secular studies, religion and society, etc.)
    2. Linguistics (i.e. dialect studies, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, classics etc.)
    3. Anthropology (i.e. cultural studies, heritage studies, ancient studies, etc.)
    4. Sociology (i.e. social studies, ethnic studies, the social world, etc.)
    5. Humanities (i.e. art history, English, comparative literature, etc.)

We have different submission requirements depending on the type of piece you would like to contribute, which can be viewed below in our "Author Guidelines" section.

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Author Guidelines

Read the guidelines below for each type of submission we accept:

Research Manuscripts

  1. Please submit your paper as a Word (.docx) document. Your name should be nowhere on the document to ensure a fully blind review process by our editors (your name and contact information will be recorded to help coordinate publication if your work is accepted).
  2. All submissions should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words excluding figure captions, headings, and bibliography.
  3. Papers should not be submitted or under review at any other publications unless explicit permission has been given for a reprint.
  4. Submissions should include Chicago-style in-text citations in author-date format:
    1. In-text citations without a page number should be: (Smith 2020).
    2. In-text citations with a page number should be: (Smith 2020, p.25)
  6. Submissions should include a full bibliography at the end of the document (ideally in an appendix).
  7. Figures should be included at the end of the document (ideally in an appendix) and included in your submission.
  8. Typical headers should include:
    1. Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, Disclosures, and a Data Availability Statement (which should link original datasets to a repository on the Harvard Dataverse and include a DOI).
    2. All articles that use human subjects in the research process (i.e. for ethnography or other sociology research) must comply by established IRB guidelines under a designated research license that must be referenced in the "Disclosures" section.
  10. Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis; the typical timeline between submission and acceptance is ~2 weeks with the total publication timeline taking ~3 weeks.

Articles

  1. Please submit your paper as a Word (.docx) document. Your name should be nowhere on the document to ensure a fully blind review process by our editors (your name and contact information will be recorded to help coordinate publication if your work is accepted).
  2. All submissions should be between 1,500 and 5,000 words excluding figure captions, headings, and bibliography.
  3. Papers should not be submitted or under review at any other publications unless explicit permission has been given for a reprint.
  4. If applicable: submissions should include Chicago-style in-text citations in author-date format:
    1. In-text citations without a page number should be: (Smith 2020).
    2. In-text citations with a page number should be: (Smith 2020, p.25)
  6. If applicable: submissions should include a full bibliography at the end of the document (ideally in an appendix).
  7. Figures should be included at the end of the document (ideally in an appendix) and included in your submission.
  8. Articles can take various forms:
    1. Essays, review articles (with a book, idea, subject, or event at the core of this review), policy memos, interviews, papers, and nonfiction writing.
  10. Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis; the typical timeline between submission and acceptance is ~1 week with the total publication timeline taking ~2 weeks.

Columns and Editorials

  1. Please submit your paper as a Word (.docx) document.
  2. All submissions should be between 500 and 1,500 words excluding figure captions, headings, and bibliography; the ideal length of a column or editorial is between 800 and 1,200 words.
  3. Papers should not be submitted or under review at any other publications unless explicit permission has been given for a reprint.
  4. Submissions should include citations that hyperlink to the source it references.
  5. Figures should be included at the end of the document (ideally in an appendix) and included in your submission.
  6. Editorials can do the following things:
    1. Respond to a manuscript, article, or other piece previously published at SCOPE through a "Letter to the Editor"; advance an opinion or point of view on a topic of your choice; provide commentary and context from personal experience.
    2. People interested in developing a Column (a series of sustained, regular editorial contributions over 3-4 months on a weekly or biweekly schedule) should email ibarrett@urbanequityinstitute.org with a pitch and desired timeline for your work.
  8. Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis; the typical timeline between submission and acceptance is ~5 business days with the total publication timeline taking ~1 week.

Policy Memoranda

  1. Please submit your policy memorandum as a Word (.docx) document.
  2. All submissions should be between 500 and 1,500 words excluding figure captions, headings, and bibliography; the ideal length of a policy memo 800 and 1,200 words.
  3. Memos should be divided into three sections: problem statement, proposed solution, and limitations. Each section should be around 500 words at most.
  4. Papers should not be submitted or under review at any other publications unless explicit permission has been given for a reprint.
  5. Submissions should include in text citations using a parenthetical (eg. "... [1,2].") that map to an endnote.
  6. Figures should be included at the end of the document (ideally in an appendix) and included in your submission.
  7. Memos are reviewed on a rolling basis; the typical timeline between submission and acceptance is ~3 business days with the total publication timeline taking ~1 week.